UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies is an interdisciplinary centre for the integrated study of science's history, philosophy, sociology, communication and policy, located in the heart of London. Founded in 1921. Award winning for teaching and research, plus for our public engagement programme. Rated as outstanding by students at every level.

At UCL, the academic mission is paramount. Our ambition is to achieve the highest standards in our teaching and research.

Prof Agar on Science and WW1

Farewell Jo Pearson

Publication date:
28 July 2014

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STS announces the departure of Ms Jo Pearson, our academic administrator. She is taking up a post elsewhere in UCL, in Department of Medical Physics and biomedical Engineering. Jo joined STS in January 2009. She leaves STS at the end of August 2014.

STS Contributes to Science Policy

Publication date:
3 July 2014

What Role Can Social Media
Play In Science Policy?

Last week saw UCL Science and Technology Studies host the first in a series of new events run in association with the
Guardian Science Policy Blogs. The event
– a discussion on the topic of ‘what role can social media play in science
policy?’ – fought off stiff competition from football (Germany vs Portugal) to
attract a sizeable audience from across academic, media, and public
sectors. The intention was to provide a
discussion based in empirical experience of social media and science policy. The first two speakers therefore provided us
with the stories behind two significant events on this topic. Síle Lane, Director of Campaigns at Sense
about Science, opened with the Libel Reform campaign of 2009-2013. Social media was used initially to connect
groups who shared concerns about risks of defamation – writers and celebrities,
as well as scientists – into an online voice for libel reform. Building on this, campaigners then used
social media to attract over 60,000 signatories to a petition, as well to
disseminate pro-libel reform arguments, activities, and stories. Síle was followed by Jenny Rohn, a cell
biologist at UCL and founder of Science is Vital. This group originated in 2010 with a blog
post from Jenny in response to threatened science budget cuts. With only four weeks to act social media was
essential to acquire rapid support for a petition and a ‘No More Doctor Nice
Guy’ rally. Despite the different aims
and timescales of the two campaigns, there were a great many common
features. Both noted the importance of
social media to reach a very diverse range of people extremely quickly, and in making
connections between interested parties (including politicians) easy to create –
even if just in the form of useful links.
But both also noted the importance of offline activities: Sense About
Science worked with the mantra ‘a hashtag is not a campaign’ to encourage
supporters to write letters to MPs and keep spreading word-of-mouth
information; Science is Vital were careful to maintain links with traditional
media outlets. This portion of
discussion also ended with a cautious note about ‘petition fatigue’ – when
social media makes campaigning easier, any single campaign risks getting lost
in the noise.